Nokia to launch Windows Phone 8 hardware in the Gulf market

Nokia is planning an event next Monday to launch its new Lumia Windows Phone 8 handsets in the Gulf market. According to an article in the popular Saudi Arabia newspaper Alriyadh, the manufacturer is expected to price the new hardware at no more than SR2300 ($613), which was revealed during GITEX Dubai last week.

Said markets include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco. Both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 are still yet to launch in major markets, including the US, China and Europe. Nokia is set to push strong in more markets, and the Gulf is certainly a strong step in the right direction for Windows Phone.

Reader comments

Nokia to launch Windows Phone 8 hardware in the Gulf market

i dont understand does not launching here help them in any way launch better in the gulf? i think they should at least get the phones out currently in the us. Canada has it, i dont understand what is taking nokia or atnt or whoever the heck is holding it up so long..........

its the market..they still have a huge fan following in the middle east and india..release any phone and people lap it up...not that its a bad thing...guess they are trying to take advantage of that...which is why pre orders are going strong here in the UAE as nokia store reps have confirmed nov 15th as the launch date..

nope..its the 15th being the latest..anyways thats what they ve been telling everyone..wouldnt hurt to come out early..:D..launch colors being black, white and yellow at nokia stores with red and blue arriving later there...while at other private stores i hear that red, white and black is available..

"they still have a huge fan following in the middle east and india..release any phone and people lap it up"

This is totally true
I'm one of Nokia fans here in Saudi Arabia
It's not only me, many of my friens are waiting for Nokia Windows Phone. One of teh reasons that keep nokia in the market here is their prices. Phones here are sold contract free. Nokia phones are soled cheaper than the others if sold in ca$h.
Another reason is the main reason, the Arabic language support. RTL language support is a real complex process. I've a galaxy nexus with stock Android 4.1.2. Eventhough, the Arabic support is not that good.
I tried Windows Phone 8 via the emulator and it supports Arabic perfectly. Just like what we used to compare with, the Windows Arabic support.

Iran's irrationality and its lack of diplomatic capacity and constant conflicts with bigger powers, plus Arab efforts (really in the form of cash paid to international institutions) has finally caught up with Iran's international image. Unfortunately the media try to avoid any form of conflict with the majority of their audience and therefore they are willing to give up on historic facts; even if it means referring to the UN sanctioned "Persian Gulf" with the misnomer "the Gulf".
Using the term "the Gulf" reminds me of Christian's efforts to force schools to teach Creation as part of Science classes. Creation is not scientific; but there is enormous political force beind it. The same thing has happened with Persian Gulf. Facts approve of the name Persian Gulf; enormous political force is working its way through facts though.
The media think it's fair, not calling it "Arabian" or "Persian" just like asking science classes to be "fair" and teach both Evolution and Creation. Only one of them is supported by facts people. "Fair" would be teaching the one being backed by objective evidence.

Really there is no objective base for calling it "the Gulf" when there is the internationally established name "Persian Gulf".

Additionally, it's not the only gulf in the world. The word "Persian" is there to specify which gulf we're talking about. Policians are lame and should be ignored when possible. It's the freakin Persian Gulf.

What the heck are you talking about ? You really have no clue what so ever what you're talking about, don't you ? Your post almost gave me cancer.

It's referred to as "The Gulf" because that's what the region has always been referred to as in English because of the Arabic translation of the term . Those countries are known as the GCC States. GCC as in Gulf Cooperation Council. Not Arab-Gulf Cooperation Council. It includes all those countries mentioned in the article, with Morocco and Jordan pending to join the GCC. Notice how Jordan is not even close to the Persion Gulf, and Morocco is in west Africa, far away from the Persian Gulf.

Before you start running your mouth and pointing fingers with your conspiracy theories, I suggest you do some research. Even in Arabic it's "Duwal Majles Al-Ta'awun Al-Khaleeji", which doesn't refer to the gulf as "Arab" or "Arabic" anywhere.

And btw, even in geography books here in Saudi Arabia it's referred to as the Persian Gulf (Al-Khaleej Al-Farisi), not the Arab Gulf.

Edit: And here's a quote off wikipedia "Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Gulf states, or Gulf Arab states are terms that refer to the six Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. These six nations are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_states_of_the_Persian_Gulf

Thank you for the insults.
"The Gulf" is currently being in much more use to refer to the Persian Gulf and without proper references and context using this term will inevitably lead one to the Persian Gulf controversy.
Existence of GCC is not really common knowledge to expect everyone to know about it. (I wasn't aware of it). I believe clarification from WPCentral would go a long way.
I am happy that geography books in Saudi Arabia are still using the real name of this gulf, however, if you take a look at Google maps for example you can see the effect of political attempts to remove the name "Persian" from the map.
Even if I was totally mistaken and WPCentral meant to refer to GCC and not the Persian Gulf, you can't act like there haven't been numerous attempts to change the name to Arabian Gulf. The only thing I would be guilty of, is mistaking WPCentral's intention and mistakenly talking about a subject that is irrelevant to this post.

In any case, I am sorry if I mistook WPCentral's intention due to my lack of knowledge regarding GCC.
PS. According to Wikipedia, GCC is not referred to as "The Gulf" as WPCentral referred to it. My objection was not so unjust after all.

A quick Bing or Google search for "the Gulf" will show "Persian Gulf" as the first result, and then news about the GCC afterwards. It's how the entire world refers to this area for many years. Presidents all over the world use "the Gulf" in their speeches and press conferences, and the war in that region was called "the Gulf War" (or operation Desert Storm for the Americans).

Anyone educated enough should know what it means, in the same manner everyone knows that "the States" refers to the United States of America, and that "Great Britain" refers to England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, and that "EU" refers to the countries of the European Union. If you are uneducated on the subject, or don't acknowledge the importance and influence of the GCC, that doesn't make it WPCentral's fault.

"Some atlases and media outlets have taken to referring to "The Gulf" without any adjectival qualification. This usage is followed by the BBC and The Times Atlas of the World. Iran does not consider this an impartial usage and views it as an active contribution to abandonment of the historical name. In June 2006, Iran banned the sale of The Economist for the above reason, after a map in the magazine labeled the Persian Gulf as "The Gulf".[43] The magazine repeated this act in its 18 February 2010 article titled "Iraq, Iran and the Politics of Oil: Crude Diplomacy". It also used the name "Arabian Gulf" in the same article.Google had previously put both Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf on its Google Maps. After May 2012, it removed both names from the body of water claiming that is the neutral thing to do. Iranians complained about the change and started a Twitter campaign asking "Where's the Persian Gulf?".[44] Google Earth continues to show both names."

In 2010, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council said using the name "Persian Gulf" is "mocked history", because "Arab presence in this region goes back 3,000 years, while Persian presence dates only to the Safavid empire (1501–1736 AD)"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute#Viewpoint_of_Arabs
And that's the viewpoint of a top official from GCC. Don't act like there is no controversy there at all, and using the name "the Gulf" is only because it has been used like that from the beginning.
I maintain that using the label "the Gulf" would result in confusion for the majority of users here and after such a controversy, using the label GCC was the right thing to do.

Iran claiming it should be called the Persian Gulf doesn't mean we should listen to them and call it that. If the whole world wants to call it the Arab Gufl, then it will be called the Arab Gulf. 1 country's opinion on what the name should be will never dictate what people will call it and how WPCentral should refer to it in their titles. I really think it is pathetic that you are trying to enforce this on the website and all the readers.

Anyway, "Persia" doesn't even exist anymore, it's Iran now. And I don't see anyone crying about it not being the Iranian Gulf.

My whole arguement in the first place was about how the term "The Gulf" refers to the GCC nations and that this information is very well known to the whole world. However, your arguement about the actual naming of the gulf is rather sad. Iran is one country, while the Arab countries on that gulf are seven (counting Iraq). Therefor calling it the Arabian Gulf makes much more sense anyway.

OK now the gloves come off. I was actually expecting this, because the outcry looked so unnatural from the beginning.
My whole argument was that due to the controversy that exists, it is not illogical for readers to doubt the intentions of the author of the post, and question whether WPCentral was actually referring to the GCC or following the agenda to change a historic name.
If there was no controversy, if the label was so clear to "the whole world", there wouldn't have been so much talk in the UN and elsewhere regarding the "proper" name of the Persian Gulf. There wouldn't have been statements from the US army to clarify what usage of terms was necessary. Even if you blow up from frustration, "the Gulf" IS NOT AS CLEAR AS YOU IMPLY so enough already. I am not going to talk about whether it was clear or not anymore. I've made my point on numerous occasions, and you don't seem to like to get it.
And regarding the number of countries around the Persian Gulf:
Explain to me why this is called the Indian Ocean:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_of_the_oceans#Indian_Ocean
Do you hear any pathetic countries whining and trying to rename it to "African Ocean" or something else?
You are redefining "pathetic", sir.

There is no controversy at all. There is Iran crying about why the world doesn't refer to it as the Persian Gulf. That is not called controversy. I really don't understand your frustration about the article's title using "Gulf". If as you said, American media uses that term, and atlases use that term, then why wouldn't WPCentral use it as well ? This is not a pro-Iranian politics website.

And the term is clear to the entire world. And I doubt people not from the gulf area are really concerned about the actual naming of it. You have 7 Arab nations that agreed to refer to the gulf their very countries are on as the "Arabian Gulf". They can call it whatever they want to call it, and they have every right to do so. People are free to go ahead and refer to it as Arabian Gulf, or just Gulf, or Persian Gulf. They are all names of the same area, whether you or Iran agree or disagree.

Whether the world goes ahead and adopts the new name or not is not anyone's fault. And the UN has no authority over anyone to force them to call the area by a specific name. Any atlas, website, or anyone else has the absolute freedom of refering to it however it sees fit.

Sure, I assume the person I was replying to and the comment after that, and the guy who actually tipped WPCentral:
"That's exactly why when I tipped WPCentral about the story I said 'launch in the GCC countries' and not the gulf but I guess WPCentral had something else in mind."
were confused, because they were all stupid.
With you not addressing the original point and changing the subject to "who wants to call it whatever they want" this meeting is hereby adjourned.

That's exactly why when I tipped WPCentral about the story I said "launch in the GCC countries" and not the gulf but I guess WPCentral had something else in mind. Or maybe it’s easier for everyone else to recognize where is that gulf the story is covering :). GCC being "Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf".
Thanks WP for putting the story :)

check it not to disrespect but im a Christian, using that example was completely pointless, just say they want to be politically correct. when you say things like " just like asking science classes to be "fair" and teach both Evolution and Creation. Only one of them is supported by facts people" makes you seem ignorant. Just because you do not share Christian beliefs does not mean your entitled to bash them, and it does not do well for your argument. The Bible is historically accurate. again i dont wanna disrespect you in any way, shape or form. i believe your entitled to your own opinion, just please whether your an atheist or an evolutionist keep comments like that to yourself just out of human courtesy? Thanks in advance. i will not post on this subject again, i got a comment removed and a warning for using a supposed "racial slur" and i apologized for it. just hope stuff like this stays out of the comments....

I really didn't mean to make this a religious debate. I was just reminded of it and I felt like the resemblence was worth mentioning to help clarify my stance.
I too understand that this is not a place for either religious or political stuff, and apparently I was mistaken in my original inference also.

Fairy tales are not historically accurate. That is not bashing, that is stating a fact. Can you please stop trying to censor scientific facts in the name of your silly superstitions? And also, don't pretend that you respect other people's opinions, when your lust for a monotheistic totalitarian regime is so obvious.

clearly your here telling me that i dont care about other peoples opinions and yet here YOU are bashing everything i believe. i only brought up that point to let agentthegreat know that it bothered me a little. im sorry that you feel i have a what was it? "lust for a monotheistic totalitarian regime" but unfortunately i didnt impose my belief on him did i? no he clearly has the free will to choose to believe whatever he wants as do you. as i said before im not getting into a debate with you. im here for news about windows phone and anything related to microsoft so have a good day. as for teaching it in schools thats another subject entirely. And AgentTheGreat i appreciate that thanks.

Yes, thank the gods he is still free to accept only scientific facts, and is not forced to believe in your fairy tales, and doesn't have to face death penalty for not worshipng your false idols. Now can you please hold on to your own promise that you will not harrass us with with your irrational superstition any more?

I am not sure where you are from, but here in India and sorrounding countries, Gulf refers only to the Persian gulf. Hence just calling it Gulf would suffice. The moment i read the headline, i knew which countries this post was about :)

Im curious...hows the online retail scene in the middle east....with the phones in many neighbouring countries is it not easy to get hold of one of these? thats what they seem to be doing in europe many times

Been working in 2 GCC countries for quite a while now. GCC is a political & economic bloc. It is also used as a distinction from the rest of entire Middle East. So when Lumia comes to "the Gulf" it's not coming to all of the Mid-East but only to a few countries/State. Another thing to watch out for is MENA (Middle East & Nort Africa) regions.
Further info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperation_Council_for_the_Arab_States_of_the_Gulf